Nn Mayor Takes It Easy In Her Finale

Rattley Plans To Teach At Harvard In Autumn

NEWPORT NEWS — Supporters of Mayor Jessie M. Rattley, wearing badges thanking her for her longtime service, said they were sad and a little bitter on the last night of her reign.

"Everybody recognized her ability except the people of Newport News," Della Gordon said. "She was the best."

On her last night at the helm of the City Council, Rattley steered through a lengthy but low-key meeting Tuesday that included the appointment of four new School Board members.

Rattley, who wore a red corsage, appeared relaxed and laughed occasionally with council members but made no reference to her departure from council late into the meeting.

Leaving the council this month with Rattley are Flora D. Crittenden and Margaret W. Keator, who with Rattley were defeated May 1 when voters elected four men to the open seats. Also leaving the council is Donald N. Patten, who did not run for re-election.

Several dozen citizens, many from the East End, attended the mayor's last council meeting wearing paper badges that read, "Friends of Jessie Rattley. Thanks, mayor!"

Alfred Bell, who handed the badges to people as they came into City Hall, said, "I think Mayor Rattley has done a very beautiful job. She's a good woman. We all will miss her."

Bell added that he would support the incoming council and the mayor it will elect next month. "We've all got to live together and work together," he said.

A few citizens took the podium late Tuesday to thank Rattley for her 20 years of service, the last four of them as mayor. "We know she had a hard uphill road to travel," Marjorie Kelly said.

Keyes, who watched Rattley from the second row, said, "It was sort of a shocking thing to see her lose after being a person who had the city at heart."

Gordon, who sat with Keyes, noted that Rattley's departure from the council "might have been a good thing. She looks pretty good up there."

"She looks relieved," Keyes added.

Two other supporters, Althea Royal-Higgs and Marjorie Lawrence, predicted Rattley will move on to other challenges.

"While we feel a sense of sadness, we know that a woman with her talents will not be wasted," Lawrence said.

Mayor Rattley said before the council meeting that she has accepted a teaching post at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government for the fall semester. She said she received official word of the offer Monday.

Rattley said she has not dropped her commitment to Hampton University, where she will begin teaching in the winter semester, she said.

As for any other plans, the mayor said she is leaving her options open, including the possibility of again running for office.

"I've never closed any doors," she said before the start of her final council meeting. "There's a lot of things out there."

Royal-Higgs, recalling Rattley's 20 years in city government, said, "There was honesty and a sense of purpose she brought to council. I don't feel that anyone on council will fill her footsteps."

"Unfortunately the perception that her national duties had taken precedence over her duties at home may have been one of the reasons" Rattley was defeated, Councilman Barry E. DuVal said.

"She has been highly criticized, but many people have complimented her around the nation for her contributions," he said.